Virgin Media keen to climb BT's poles

Following Ofcom's report and outlines for the UK's super-fast broadband network, Virgin Media has welcomed the news that competitors will be given access to BT's underground ducts and telegraph poles.

A Virgin Media spokesperson said: "This is an important step that rightly focuses on opening up areas of the country not already served by super-fast broadband, removing one of the hurdles that make such developments near impossible at present".

Virgin Media and BT did try to do a deal earlier this year which would have seen the cable company using the existing BT infrastructure, but the two telecoms giants couldn't iron out the details. The new Ofcom guidelines should make any future deal much more straight forward.

Ian Watt, analyst at Enders Analysis, told The Financial Times that Ofcom's outline could see Virgin Media expanding its network to almost 16 million homes.

BT has its own super-fast broadband plans though, with an aim of 4 million homes by the end of the year and a target of 17 million by 2015.